Thursday, January 9, 2014

Military Site for Voting Gets Redesigned!

Can I say FINALLY? As someone who ended up getting involved in the Florida fiasco in 2000 thanks to a very good friend who also was someone I worked with, it is great to see the redesign. In 2000 when the military absentee ballots were tossed out in Hillsborough County, called up an old friend in DC who got me access to the locator so the military who had their ballots tossed could be notified their votes didn't count.

When someone asks why I would have trouble supporting Hillary Clinton can say truthfully, it is her husband. He had all the mililtary locators shut down after the Washington Post did an article on an airman stationed in England who had his vote denied. Will admit today that I leaked the info to the military writer at the Washington Post who wrote the article.

Part of the fault is with the postal service who stamped the outside ballots when they hit Miami. Military have ten days after the election for their ballots to get to their home of record board of elections to be counted and they are NEVER stamped. It was one big mess added to by the Hillsborough County head of the Board of Elections tossing them because of the date on the outside envelope even though they were there on time and the USPS was not supposed to have put a date stamp on them coming from overseas. Most Election Boards in the Country ignored the outside stamp knowing they were not supposed to be stamped, but not Hillsborough County.

Will never forget it and since then have seen other instances of military having trouble not only with the site but being denied their right to vote in elections because an election board secretary gets the ballots out to them too late for them to vote, they don't get the ballot back in time, or send them the wrong ballot.

Military need to be able to log in and vote on line after a dual sign in with the voting officer to prevent any fraud or chance of their ballot not being counted. Voting on line and no more snail mail would make this even better.

So happy when I got this email to see they have finally gotten the message and revamped the site:

FVAP Launches Redesigned FVAP.gov WebsiteNew site provides customized voter experience by incorporating usability study resultsALEXANDRIA, Va. – The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) released its newly redesigned website today in an effort to provide the best voting assistance possible for absent Service members, their families and overseas citizens, and those that support them. Based on feedback from usability studies, the new site provides information tailored to the user, with improved navigation for clarity.

Frequent visitors should go to FVAP.gov and update bookmarks accordingly.

Key changes include:

- “Voters Start Here” and State drop-down menus to the online assistants for completing the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) and the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB)
- Tab drop-down menus that include contact information for FVAP, election officials and Voting Assistance Officers
- A search feature to help navigation to any information previously utilized

We recognize that Uniformed Service members, overseas citizens, Voting Assistance Officers and election officials rely on reference information found at FVAP.gov. We hope the changes prove helpful to those voting absentee or assisting others. Please let us know if there is more information we can provide, or if you have any issues or suggestions.###For more information on FVAP or assistance with the absentee voting process, visit FVAP.gov, call FVAP at 1-800-438-VOTE or DSN 425-1584 (CONUS)/312-425-1584 (OCONUS), or email vote@fvap.gov. Remember, you also can contact your unit or installation voting assistance officers for assistance during any step of the process. Facebook.com/DoDFVAP@FVAP

This is great news for our military. These men and women fight for us so we have a right to vote in fair and open elections yet time and time again the military have been denied their right to vote. Finally the Department of Defense is headed by a man who understands what it is like to be in the military and serve on foreign soil in this case in Vietnam. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is making a difference and am so happy that President Obama not only nominated him but stuck with him when the Obstructionist Republican Senators tried to derail his nomination. He is a breathe of fresh air at The Pentagon!